In south Texas, 407 million gallons of water will yield either $200,000 of corn or $2.5 billion of oil and gas. That means there are 12,500 times more reasons to use the water to extract oil and gas than to grow corn and cows.

Most folks are familiar with the Good old boy network, a loose collection of family and friends that can be tapped for personal or business needs. Few, however, know that agriculture has it own network, the good old farmboy network.

Before this 2012 thing gets too far down the road, let's take a sober second or two to review some of the more inventive ideas from 2011 and see if we can't make them work in the coming 12 months of political and economic stalemate.

As we slip into the sweet week between Christmas and New Year's there's only one task to complete before clearing the desk and brain of all things 2011: readers having the last word in the last column of the year.

A month ago I enjoyed a church dinner in the gymnasium of the grade school I attended 50 years ago. Back then, the gym sparkled with newness because, like the school itself, it was brand new, finished just weeks before I reported to the first grade as an equally new student.

How do you explain Congress' public approval rating of only 9 percent and still not one hint of any change in the collective behavior that has made the institution and its members as popular as chickenpox?

As the Sunday, Nov. 20 network news' yakkers were working hard to fix the blame for the Super Committee's failed attempts to fix last summer's failed attempts to fix Congress's failed attempts to fix the federal budget, 25 or so Americans gathered in a central Illinois church to hear their pastor explain that day's Gospel, Matthew 25: 31-46.